New Friends

The past couple of weeks we have been blessed to be guests at the churches of friends I worked with at the plant. Both are small, country churches who are reaching out to their communities with the Gospel of Christ. We were warmly welcomed at both of these churches and are glad to have made new friends and partners in the work of the Kingdom.

The church we visited today is pastored by my friend who still works at the plant. Soon after we arrived, Lisa and I both felt that we were at one of the churches we visited in the Philippines. The people were so warm and friendly. The worship was exuberant and from the heart. The start and end times of the Sunday School and morning worship were flexible. But the real surprise that made it feel more like our experience in the Philippines was that the message was translated. It was a multi-cultural congregation. Besides the USA, there were people there from Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

We have enjoyed seeing how God is at work among so many different congregations. Because we have been blessed to have had a great church family for so many years, we had not visited other churches. While it is not something I would recommend to everyone, it has provided us a broader view of God at work in this area. But we are eager to be back at our home church next week. It will be good to see everyone, yet sad to say good-bye as that will be our last Sunday together with them for a few years.

Grace,

Tom